Consumer-Directed Promotion of Regulated Medical Products; Part 15 Public Hearing

FDA Comment Number :

EC363

Submitter :

Mr. Leif Borgman

Date & Time:

12/09/2005 11:12:47

Organization :

Mr. Leif Borgman

Category :

Individual Consumer

Issue Areas/Comments

GENERAL

GENERAL

My comment to the above hearing is this. I instinctly feel that it is inappropriate for drug companies to advertise products directly to consumers who cannot purchase such products on their own. This covers those that are sold by prescription only. Why send a message to the general public when it is up to a health practitioner to decide what to prescribe? A consumer cannot possibly make a correct decision in this matter. Is the patient going to tell the Doctor what to prescribe? If that's the case, then there's something wrong with the whole system. Secondly, in the case of psychiatric anti-depressants, their advertisement is at the level fraudulence. The claims made are completely false and has no valid basis in truth. There is no medical test in existence that can tell whether a person has a chemical imbalance in the brain, as is claimed by the drug companies. They are prescribing mind-altering drugs for symptoms that can be caused by any number of deficiencies and for which changes in diet, environment etc has been proven to be effective treatments. These drugs are very dangerous and have all kinds of side effects. The body was not built to handle an attack of this kind. It is an artificial treatment and they cause much more damage than help. Thousands of deaths, suicides and outright killings, shootings have been traced to these drugs. It is a disgrace to this country that they are allowed to be sold. There should be a congressional investigation into the practices of drug companies to find what evidence they are suppressing as well as what other valid research is in existence that has proven effective in treating these so called "disorders" and which do not utilize hazardous and poisonous substances. Thus, advertising these products as something safe and helpful for the general public is fraud. It should be forbidden.
Thank you,
Leif Borgman
Sylmar CA